I this topic might be relevant beyond the Tom Ford thread in the Designer Collections area so I hope it's okay to start this thread here.

Tom Ford has made his recent presentations very exclusive. He has banned critics from his shows and barred discussion of his collections until a predetermined future time.

From Fashionista.com

Quote:

LONDON–Tom Ford appointments were yesterday and today, but don’t expect to hear anything about the presentation from the journalists, fashion editors, and stylists who attended.

All attendees were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement that requires them not to write or reveal anything about the collection until the summer. As fall collections usually hit stores in late June/early July, expect profiles on Ford in the May/June issues of your favorite magazines.

That means Cathy, Suzy, and Robin were probably not invited to view the collections. “I don’t want to be reviewed,” he told the Los Angeles Times‘ Booth Moore, who we suspect was left off of his list as well. These writers are all critics, which means that even if they waited to write about it for six months, it would be with a gimlet eye.

Tom Ford's remarks from nymag.com

Quote:

"I don't want to be reviewed," he says. "I'm not an artist with an opening; this is not a film. I'm just trying to make pretty clothes. And beautiful clothes make beautiful women, but sometimes they don't make fashion news. I don't want to be pushed to think about what we have that's new when we don't need anything new except another version of what we did last year that still looks good to me."

Does Ford have a valid point? Do we really need critics dissecting collections and steering designers and others with their subjective opinions on what constitutes a successful collection?

...or is Ford just arrogant, thin-skinned and afraid of criticism?

Is he on to something? Delaying media coverage reduces the window of time for knockoffs to be produced and find their way onto shelves in some cases faster than the original collections that inspired them. Not seeing a collection until its almost ready for shelves can keep it fresher in the mind than seeing it blogged about endlessly for months beforehand. On the other hand doesn't the buzz created by blogs and fashion publications help sell designer clothes?

Obviously only the big name houses can get away with making editors and buyers sign non-disclosure agreements. What happens if other major houses adopt the Tom Ford approach? Will it decrease or increase interest in these collections? How will it affect the media? Will magazines move on to more accessible labels or will nothing change at all?

If most of the big name houses starts to pull off something like that, it will become such a bizarre scene...
Tom Ford can probably get away with it, just because he is Tom Ford, and that's him, he does whatever he wants; thats what's amazing about his brand, that's the dramatic point I believe.
Just to think.. If John Galliano with Dior starts to do anything like that, the brand will loose it's essence, since the dramatic factor of Dior with Galliano is the theatric scene.
Or to think that Karl make a Chanel show like that as well, it will probably be hilarious, and tiresome to just wait when everything is released.
If almost every big name houses do something like, then why not just push the show seasons up before a month of the release of collections.

For me personally, I will definitely loose interest... I will have to guess from magazines which are the brands' newest collection, if it's all of them. At last, I probably would even forget some of the shows... I'd rather just grab lookbooks/catalogues and look through them...

Oh my, I had no idea they to sign an agreement. No doubt you can call this show a secret one.

Considering Tom has returned to the fashion world on his own conditions, so he's free to do whatever he wants to. My problem, however, is that, having to wait so long for the first shots to come out, I actually forget there was any Tom Ford with his secret show few days ago.

I will go with brilliant. It is something that has yet to be done to my knowledge. Who knows, he might start banning certain people from buying his pieces. As for the knocking off, thats another reason to have a secret collection.

If more fashion houses do follow his lead, I have it would affect magazines and media/social media outlets, people will have to try and sneak into shows or harass people for some sort of info about the show. Magazines will find a way to sell issues either way, if something like this does happen. Just like blogs online for macs, people post certain pieces that are being manufactured, so maybe working in a factory will post a picture online or send it to a blog.

If most of the big name houses starts to pull off something like that, it will become such a bizarre scene...Tom Ford can probably get away with it, just because he is Tom Ford, and that's him, he does whatever he wants; thats what's amazing about his brand, that's the dramatic point I believe.

exactly. but how many seasons do you think it will last? will he always be able to get by solely because he is "Tom Ford"

I feel like it is brilliance to a point. I don't think he shouldn't allow people to review his work, because it comes with any sort of creative field whether it be fashion or food. people are always going to have something to say.

Personally, I like reading fashion reviews because (for the most part) some fashion critics have such a vast knowledge of fashion that I lack and it's nice to be able to learn and have explanations for things that I didn't know. for instance if a designer uses a silhouette that is from the early stages of the brand in a modern way, which I might not have previously noticed.

I get not showing the clothes until the actual season that it applies to though. I actually stopped watching some of the live streams of shows because I realized it was affecting what I thought of the show. Collections should be digested and not spit out, even as much as I love seeing the pictures right away. what you think of something right then might be completely different from days to weeks to months later.

It's both brilliant and arrogant; it's arrogant from a fashion design standpoint and brilliant from a marketing standpoint.

I've asked this question and I don't think that it's been answered, but how real is the threat that Tom Ford's collection will get knocked off? Also has Tom Ford expressed a concern about this threat or is it speculation, this is not a rhetorical question I don't recall one way or another? I do think that Ford mentioned that he is concerned about a collection being over-exposed and fatigue setting in before the clothes hit the stores, but that is a separate, albeit valid, issue.

To me I think that he is being arrogant but it is his prerogative to be that way and he can and should continue to do so until the "right people" lose interest, I just wish that arrogance would be backed up by the clothes themselves. My theory is that his real motive is that he does not want his clothes to compete with other design houses for attention during the RTW seasons so he is withholding his stuff until a less congested time in the fashion cycle.

When you think about it, the whole non-disclosure aspect is kinda ridiculous. Let's be real here, if a journalist or editor received an invite to a presentation that they could not report on for a few months / several weeks then the sensible ones would decline the invite and say, "call me when I can report on the collection in real time," but the media folks are not doing this because for now it is an interesting and different story. In fact I would be willing to bet that, despite the protestations about the ubiquity and saturation of the internet when it comes to the dissemination of fashion information, that several of the invitees were active bloggers, tweeters or online reporters. Also, despite the embargo, the names of the highly recognizable or hot newcomer model cast was released, hmmm interesting.

As previously stated in another thread, I think that what is going on is more of about the marketing of the collection and the womenswear line, as opposed to a different philosophy about fashion. Again I think that it is pretty darn brilliant marketing strategy, specifically Tom Ford's womenswear line will get attention during runway season because it is "counter-programming" and then the collection will get attention when it actually released because there won't be anything else of the same ilk going on, so I guess it will be counter-programming then too. Again, I don't have a problem with it, I just hope that Ford / Tom Ford Inc. will also put significant thought, creativity and modernity into the collections themselves itself and not just the marketing of the collections.

I've asked this question and I don't think that it's been answered, but how real is the threat that Tom Ford's collection will get knocked off? Also has Tom Ford expressed a concern about this threat or is it speculation, this is not a rhetorical question I don't recall one way or another? I do think that Ford mentioned that he is concerned about a collection being over-exposed and fatigue setting in before the clothes hit the stores, but that is a separate, albeit valid, issue.

I don't know if this was a specific concern of Tom Ford but the knockoff market is a reality for all designers. A lot of the mass-market companies like H&M and Zara watch the runways with the specific intention of copying the popular runway looks for the mass market. By delaying media access to his line, Ford is - either intentionally or not--shortening that window those companies have between viewing the collection and being able to produce the knockoffs in time for the season.

Quote:

As previously stated in another thread, I think that what is going on is more of about the marketing of the collection and the womenswear line, as opposed to a different philosophy about fashion. Again I think that it is pretty darn brilliant marketing strategy, specifically Tom Ford's womenswear line will get attention during runway season because it is "counter-programming" and then the collection will get attention when it actually released because there won't be anything else of the same ilk going on, so I guess it will be counter-programming then too. Again, I don't have a problem with it, I just hope that Ford / Tom Ford Inc. will also put significant thought, creativity and modernity into the collections themselves itself and not just the marketing of the collections.

I think it could prove to be brilliant only if the collection is worth the hype. To keep people waiting and then unveil something woefully unremarkable leaving himself with a short time frame to build buzz could prove to be his downfall.

It's exclusive and that is what Tom Ford is all about. To distinguish himself from the thousands of brands this is a brilliant move. It's indeed an arrogant attitude, but he is just so brilliantly arrogant that he will get a way with it and do great.

arrogant--and the ultimate in elitism,pretense,ego....self-absorbed and pompous. this is the part of fashion that i unequivocally loathe with passion.

my feeling is,it amazes me how much a designer of his status is often allowed a pass on certain matters but the moment an indie designer presents something in a different manner....be it and installation,static or just anything of an esoteric nature....they immediately get dubbed 'pretentious'. and let's not forget,their work still gets seen and is allowed criticism. why is that?

of course,that is tom ford. he's always been arrogant and always will be arrogant. i'm sure all of his celeb friends got to see the collection though....you can count on that.

Personally I don't really see it as either, though if I had to choose one of the two words I'd pick brilliant if only because it has thus far seemed like a pretty successful way of sustaining the buzz around the collection. Obviously it's still too soon to tell whether or not this method has been good for the business side of things, but from a marketing and branding point of view it seems to have worked for the time being.

It really does seem like his priorities have changed from when he was at Gucci, and I really can't blame him. I mean spending nearly a decade worrying about pleasing shareholders, clients, CEOs, editors and critics must weigh on a designer, especially considering how huge a pedestal he was placed upon as a barometer of fashion trends. He always seemed to be able to handle it, but can anyone really blame him for growing weary of constantly having to one-up himself AND everybody else? At the end of the day he now seems most concerned with pleasing his clients and pleasing himself, which I really don't think is something to condemn, but that's just my opinion. Then again this is Tom Ford we're talking about and there are people who will find him arrogant no matter what he does.

An attempt at brilliant marketing. (quite possibly a success.) TF has intentionally gone against the grain to create media presence and brand 'exclusivity' since it's inception. As everyone else has already stated, most certainly another display of unabashed arrogance on his part.

Avoiding mass market 'knock offs' is not really a just cause for a private showing. The purchasers of said knock offs aren't anywhere near the buying demographic of TF merchandise and aren't taking away an iota of the market share. Oh Tom Ford ...

It's both brilliant and arrogant; it's arrogant from a fashion design standpoint and brilliant from a marketing standpoint.

Yes it totally depends of his goal !
I agree with you but with the same conlusions you make we could also make a reverse, like we could say great for marketing so arrogant and that if it was, well more "art for art" it would have been brilliant. Hope I made myself clear